Previews

Fallout 3

We were encouraged to stray from the main storyline in our demo, since Bethesda would prefer not to spoil it and we couldn't agree more. So instead we went off the beaten path and went hunting for trouble in the wasteland. A short jaunt away from the entrance to the vault, we were able to find an encampment of savage raiders, torn straight from the "Mad Max" films. These ruffians were covered in leather and spikes while swinging lead pipes, sporting bad hairstyles and vicious demeanors.

Choosing to shoot first and ask questions later, we took advantage of the Fallout 3 player's ace in the hole, the VATS system. You can freeze the action with the click of button, and take aim at specific targets on an enemy's body. You can aim for the head for a good chance at a decapitating kill shot, aim for the weapon to disarm an opponent, or aim for the legs to cripple melee combatants, keeping safely out of range. This also applies to non-human opponents, so you can shoot the poisonous stinger off a giant radscorpion.

Each VATS system command depletes your pool of action points, so you can't just insta-kill your way through a huge group by staying in this paused mode. Think of it more like a special attack that you can break out every once in a while for special results, like gruesome shots to the neck that'll send the viscera flying.

Killing enemies in Fallout 3 is very satisfying, and not just because of the finely blended real-time first-person shooting and the tactics-heavy strategy of the VATS system. It's also fun because of all the loot. You'll literally strip your victims down to their underwear when you loot their armor, steal their guns, and empty their pockets of valuable bottlecaps, the currency of the wasteland.

The itemization abounds, with many different kinds of food (like delicious dog meat, squirrel-on-a-stick, and Fancy Lads snack cakes), drink (dirty water, Nuka Cola, all kinds of booze), weapons, armor, and drugs. You may want to indulge in some recreational drug abuse to fight off the effects of radiation or to give yourself a little performance-enhancing boost, but the dangers of addiction are very real.

There's far more to do in Fallout 3 than just shooting people to itsy-bitsy pieces. If you're playing a character with plenty of speech skill, you can sway the natives with the power of conversation, plying them for free stuff, favors, and access to stuff that you'd otherwise only achieve through combat or thievery. Then there are the hacking and lock-picking games that will get you into places where you weren't meant to be. The lock-picking mini-game is a test of finesse, as you work a screwdriver and bobby pin simultaneously in order to turn locks, hoping to apply the right amount of pressure before your pin snaps. The hacking mini-game is a word puzzle, where through the process of elimination and lucky guesswork you arrive at the necessary password to break into the system.

Fallout 3 is a very different game from its predecessors on a surface level, but the feeling we get while playing it, even in this unfinished state, tells us that it's also very much the same. Bethesda clearly has a solid understanding of the appeal behind the franchise, and has taken great steps towards recreating and even improving upon the most important aspects of the classic PC role-playing games. Even the most die-hard Fallout fan couldn't ask for anything more.